


you never forget the rise of a pheonix

by aspidocheloner



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: I'm not sure how to tag this, Light Angst, M/M, Pop Star AU, Separation, Yuuri Decides He Needs To Change, jealous viktor, lowkey victuuri, pre-slash??, they don't get divorced
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 21:44:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspidocheloner/pseuds/aspidocheloner
Summary: Yuuri takes a deep breath, smiles weakly, and takes the first step off the cliff. “Hi, Seung Gil,” He swallows, just barely keeping his voice steady, “I think I need your help.” He makes a lot of calls, that night, curled up in the corner of the kitchen as the sunset casts blush shaded shadows over him. He calls in favors, and the beginning of the end forms like castle walls around him in his glass house. Yuuri isn’t delusional, despite popular belief. More than anything, he knows that he and Viktor love each other; but right now, they don’t necessarily like each other. On that cold tiled floor, he realizes something: it’s his fault. A long time ago, Viktor learned things and changed into a better man- an honest man, a real one- for Yuuri. So he could deserve Yuuri.Now it’s time for Yuuri to do the same.





	you never forget the rise of a pheonix

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cuttlemefish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuttlemefish/gifts).
  * Inspired by [#VityaTurns40](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11304834) by [cuttlemefish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuttlemefish/pseuds/cuttlemefish). 



> for cuttlemefish!! z is my fav yuri on ice author, so like,, read everything they've written please. this is a silly idea i had for things that happen after chapter two of '#vitya turns 40'

When YuuriK makes a music video with Engagement #1, the media expects Viktor to retaliate. As magazines roll off the presses with headlines screaming of Viktuuri’s end, some people hold their breath. They fold their hands together and wait for a bigger fish to come along. It does. They don’t have to wait long. 

 

Engagement #2 is a beautiful, flirtatious man. Everyone believed in his and Viktor’s engagement; some particular groups of fans believe that he suits Viktor better now than Yuuri ever could. So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise when Viktor drops a new single out of the blue, and Engagement #2 is in the music video. Maybe it should have been expected, even. Anyways, the real surprise isn’t the video, it’s the song. Delicate harmonies mix with the sweet lyrics of Viktor promising his heart away, his love away. At one point, he mentions emerald eyes and a night to remember. Only half of this applies to Yuuri, who takes the dogs on walks anytime Viktor tries to talk to him. When, in the video, he croons lovesick melodies to Engagement #2 instead of Yuuri, social media goes haywire. 

 

Perhaps that’s why nobody notices Yuuri’s lack of comments on the matter. If everything around you is made of screaming sound, what good is it to look for the silence? So one husband is silent in the quietest of ways, while the other learns the way he must be perfect, but not plastic, in the public eye. They learn different things, hundreds of miles away from each other. The music video is filmed in Venice, and VikNik’s Instagram page is filled with pictures of the canals and the sights, and of him with Engagement #2. The information that Yuuri gleans from this is that his husband is not at Villa Vedici; he is, instead, in a country far away with a man he used to love while Yuuri is alone in a house that no longer feels like home. The upside to this is that Viktor is distracted- with him gone, Yuuri can easily sneak away to one of his houses with their poodles, one without memories of Viktor smudged on it like fingerprints on glass, and that is where he thinks. Where he plans. The shattered fragments of his rose-tinted lenses build the foundation for something beautifully desperate. 

 

The aggressive beeping while his phone connects echoes through the lonely home. “Yuuri? What’s wrong, are you okay?” A tinny voice asks in confusion. 

 

Yuuri takes a deep breath, smiles weakly, and takes the first step off the cliff. “Hi, Seung Gil,” He swallows, just barely keeping his voice steady, “I think I need your help.” He makes a lot of calls, that night, curled up in the corner of the kitchen as the sunset casts blush shaded shadows over him. He calls in favors, and the beginning of the end forms like castle walls around him in his glass house. Yuuri isn’t delusional, despite popular belief. More than anything, he knows that he and Viktor love each other; but right now, they don’t necessarily like each other. On that cold tiled floor, he realizes something: it’s his fault. A long time ago, Viktor learned things and changed into a better man- an honest man, a real one- for Yuuri. So he could deserve Yuuri. 

 

Now it’s time for Yuuri to do the same.

 

-

**_CELEBRITY POWER COUPLE ‘VIKTUURI’ REFUSE TO ADDRESS DIVORCE RUMORS?_ **

_ - _

_ After what has appeared to be a battle in search of revenge between the couple, starting with YuuriK’s drunk facebook live where he talked about how much he loved  _ **_all_ ** _ of his husband and spiralling into music videos with separate love interests- something unprecedented for these pop kings- many are wondering; will the music industry’s infamously famous power couple be splitting up soon?  _

 

_ - _

 

The house is lonely without Yuuri there. Of course, Viktor knew this already, because he spent long, lonely years without him. But now that he’s had Yuuri, and the bed made for him and his husband and their poodles is much emptier now, he feels cold. He even misses the way Yuuri liked to press his icy toes into the warm crook of his knee.  _ Likes _ . He’s sure that if Yuuri was here, he would still do it. Therein lies the root of the problem, however. Yuuri isn’t there. Yuuri hasn’t been there for weeks, according to the nice man who cleans their house, and the woman that makes sure their yard is perfect. Phichit has, though. Viktor knows this because he caught him sneaking into the house to get Yuuri more clothes. The Thai singer had taken one look at him, drowning in his husband’s big sleep shirt, and smiled sympathetically. He hadn’t bothered trying to ask where Yuuri was because then he would lose Phichit’s pity and then he would have no access to t-shirts that smell like katsudon and sunshine because Yuuri likes to let his sturdier clothes line dry.

 

He feels pathetic, and lonely, and he doesn’t know how to fix it. He makes sure Chris knows about it, too.

 

“Well, Viktor, what do you want me to do? You got yourself into this mess, y’know,” Chris’s voice crackles through his phone speakers and bounces off of the exercise room walls. The platinum-haired King of Pop has devoted himself to making his body more beautiful so he can win Yuuri back. 

 

“You led me into the idea!” Viktor whines between squats, mentally running through the last time he had his bat. The paps got pictures of Leech Sun Girl with Yuuri yesterday and Viktor couldn’t find it when he looked.

 

“I thought you were going to do a sexy music video, VikNik, not sing a love song to your ex before going on a romantic vacation with him!”

 

“I was thinking of Yuuri the entire time, though.”

 

“Viktor, darling, sweetheart, you sang about green eyes and Yuuri’s are a beautiful brown.”

 

“First of all, I wanted to make him jealous, and second of all, stop calling my husband’s eyes beautiful.”

 

“Viktor, you’re hopeless. Listen, I have a date, okay? Don’t call me. I mean it.”

 

-

**_YUURIK SPOTTED WITH EX AND KPOP STAR LEE SEUNG GIL_ **

_ - _

_ We’ve all heard the divorce rumors about pop star power couple Victuuri, but they seem much more real after pictures of Katsuki-Nikiforov and Lee having lunch together surfaced yesterday. The pair dated for a brief period years ago while Victuuri had broken up; could this truly mean the end?  _

 

_ Note: YuuriK himself reached out to us and made a statement about his and Lee’s relationship being ‘purely platonic’ and let slip that the pair were working on professional ventures. _

 

_ - _

 

There’s a pounding in Yuuri’s head, and he isn’t sure if it’s because of his headache or the fact that the music coming from the speakers is so loud that he can feel the beat in his rib cage. That could be his heartbeat, though. He’s choking on air, standing in the middle of the dance studio, and he’s pretty sure that there are literal puddles of sweat on the floor around him. Exhaustion has settled into his bones so thoroughly that he’s sure he won’t be able to move for another hour, and yet Minako is telling him to run through it again. So he does.

 

He’s forgotten how much he loves this; the masochistic joy of pushing his body further, and further, until he drops to the floor with blisters on his feet. It’s not like he hasn’t been doing it for each of his albums and singles with Viktor, but now it’s different. It feels different.

 

It should. This is his rebirth, after all. It’s not his first album for Viktor-  _ Lover Boy  _ came out shortly after the wedding and it was full of bubblegum pop melodies, love songs so sweet the lyrics melted like cotton candy on his tongue, and a few sex anthems- but it’s his first with so much of himself in it. He’s put his sweat and tears and soul into every album before this one, but never his heart. It’s fitting for Yuuri to change that with the album that’s about him learning to love Viktor the way he should.

 

It’s not until Minako starts scolding him that he realizes that he’s slipped pieces of ‘Venice’ choreography into ‘Loving Myself’. So he has run through it again, again, until she’s satisfied. Finally, he’s got it down, and Yuuri’s three seconds away from collapsing even as he opens his mouth to ask if maybe they could work on ‘Melodrama’ when he’s interrupted a smattering of enthusiastic clapping from the door.

 

He can’t help but grin when he sees who it is, wiping away the sweat on his forehead so it can’t drip into his eyes

 

“C’mon, Yuuri,” Celestino says, smiling so widely that it nearly cracks his face in half, “Aren’t you gonna hug me?”

 

-

 

**_YUURIK’S NEW ALBUM ‘PHOENIX’ ANNOUNCED_ **

-

_ Yuuri Katsuki has a new album in the making, which is to be released on iTunes and Spotify September 24th, and it’s supposedly unlike everything else he’s dropped. Once again working with BigHit, YuuriK announced the album with a music video for the first song of the album ‘Loving Myself.” Click  _ _ here _ _ to see it for yourself. _

 

-

 

Yuuri, kneeling on his bed in a gauzy black robe and pale pink booty shorts, trailing his fingers delicately over sex toys as he sings. He pauses over each one, and every time a new hand takes it away. The first to go is blue and a silver one; Viktor doesn’t miss the meaning, and a knot curls in his stomach. When he finally gets down to the last two, singing “I’m gonna touch the pain away, I know how to scream my own name” so prettily Viktor could cry, the image goes dark. Still, the Russian doesn’t have to watch it. But Viktor is a starving man, and Yuuri is an entire feast. It’s no surprise he can’t bring himself to click off of the video.

 

Whenever he sees Lease Song Grill with his hands on Yuuri’s hips, the flickering of the neon lights casting shadows over their faces, he almost does. The way they press their foreheads together, the way Yuuri loops his arms over the k-idol’s shoulders, how achingly intimate they seem despite their hips rolling together with a frantic harshness- it all burns, like acid, makes Viktor pick up his phone and dial Yuuri’s number despite  _ knowing  _ that he won’t reply. The set is obviously meant to be a club, even as Yuuri mouths the lyrics into the small space between them, with the silhouettes of people moving around them. All Viktor sees is a house with a pretty white picket fence for Yuuri and Levis Sunk Fill and it tastes like rot in his mouth.

 

He lasts through approximately three seconds of watching Chris and Yuuri pole dance  _ together _ in a way that they never have before he picks up the phone to call his traitorous best friend. “Do you know why Yuuri won’t answer my calls?” Viktor asks before the other man can get a word in. His voice is almost scary in its levelness and icy determination.

 

“...Yes.”

 

“Then fucking tell me, Chris, because I don’t have a fucking clue where he is either so I can’t exactly mail him a letter, can I?” Viktor snaps, desperate and aggressive in a way he hasn’t been since he and Yuuri broke up.

 

“He said that he didn’t want to be tempted into coming back,” Chris explains, in a hesitant way, and at Viktor’s sharp inhale he rushes to continue, “He’s not mad at you! I think he’s a little mad at himself, actually. But he made me promise not to tell you why and, I’m sorry Vik, he’s much scarier than you are. Did you, uh, finish the video?”

 

Viktor, silently fuming, stares at the way Yuuri looks sexy even mid-blink, “No.”

 

“You really should. I gotta go, my management needs to yell at me.”

 

The Russian hums in reply as he hears the soft click of the disconnect, and unpauses the video. He refuses to look at Chris and instead admires how beautiful his husband is. It’s not hard; Yuuri is hard lines and lean muscle and yet he still carries gentleness to him. He’s also wearing a different pair of booty shorts with ‘ _ mine _ ’ printed across the cheeks that make his ass look great.

 

Viktor doesn’t really know if it’s better or worse now that he doesn’t recognize the man in bed with Yuuri; he’s always loved how blue looks on the Japanese man’s, but the way the strange new man’s shock of bright hair splays against Yuuri’s chest makes him see red. He knows that, logically, neither of them are naked. Logic doesn’t factor anywhere into the equation as he watches his husband sing about loving himself while a stranger trails his fingers across his skin. 

 

As the music peters off and the image darkens, footsteps echo through Viktor’s earbuds. The scene changes; his husband, standing in a glass case, looking sallow, pale, alone in a clean white room. The footsteps get louder, and louder, until the old Viktor Double appears on screen, dragging a gold bat behind him. He places his palm on the glass surface, before raising the bat and slamming it into the case. Cracks splinter across its surface and Not Viktor just keeps swinging. Viktor swallows around nothing, his mouth unmistakably dry as he watches some glass shards fleck out onto Yuuri.

 

Finally, the case shatters, and Yuuri falls through. The bat hits the floor with a metallic clank as the Viktor Double steps away to let him hit the glass covered floor. So Yuuri does, crumpling with a sickening thud as the other man walks away. The screen is burned away by fire until it fades into blackness, and text surfaces: PHOENIX, 9/24.

 

Viktor takes a deep breath and watches it about ten more times.

 

-

**_PHOENIX ALBUM A SHOCK TO YUURIK FANS_ **

-

_ Yuuri Katsuki, the sexy pop icon well known for his booty, his husband, and his undeniable talent, has released the whole of his new album two days before the set date- September 24th- with a new music video. The album is a mix of the usual catchy beats you find on his other albums and hauntingly soft melodies. While we’ve been watching the ‘Loving Myself’ music vid daily in hopes of finding a clue about the new album, the music video he dropped today for his song ‘Issues’ is heartbreakingly raw. Some of the songs seem to be dedicated to his husband; like ‘Liability’, where Katsuki sings about a man who has been told he’s too much and believes it, while YuuriK disagrees. _

 

_ You can find the album on Spotify  _ _ here _ _ and the  _ _ music video _ _ for ‘Issues’. _

 

-

 

“Yuuri, which color do you want?” Phichit asked, holding up to neat little bottles of nail polish; one a pretty peach shaded pink and the other a shimmery robin’s egg blue. The Thai singer’s own nails were a cheerful red with thin golds designs curling across those on his two ring fingers. This- sleepovers, with painting nails and bad movies and junk food- was tradition, from back when they were 3XO. They would hole up for the night of an album release and do anything to distract Yuuri. Otabek could paint beautiful designs meticulously onto his tiny canvas, and Phichit had a knack for painting the base perfectly. Yuuri brought delicious popcorn and hot cocoa to the table. These nights felt like a faded sort of familiar- almost like Yuuri was slipping into an old favorite jacket: warm and worn and just the right edge of too tight. The slumber party worked, though. He was plenty distracted. Phichit pouted, and shook both bottles again, using the noise to get his attention, “Yuuri!”

 

He hummed thoughtfully and craned his head back to look up at Otabek, who was currently braiding his hair back. For once, management had decided to keep it long. It fit the softness of the album. “Beka,” He pointed at Phichit, delighting in the faint blush spreading across the younger man’s cheeks.Yuuri knew that him and Yuri were up to something. “Which do you think would look better with cherry blossoms?” Yuuri felt the Kazakh man huff out an exasperated breath before he felt the sharp sting as the DJ flicked the back of his neck. This, of course, started a pillow fight that ended whenever Phichit kicked the popcorn bowl and Yuuri stared at him until he mumbled about finding the vacuum and disappearing

 

It was hours later, when they were watching movies and googling how to eat popcorn with wet nails, that Yuuri’s phone rang. The first delicate notes of the ringtone echoed through the room, from the first song that Yuuri had written with Viktor. It had taken them a minute to realize Yuuri was even being called, with the move on. Yuuri stared at it for a moment, hands splayed delicately in front of him. Otabek, the only one who could still use his hands properly, held it up to show Yuuri the caller ID. The caller ID he already knew, but the effort was appreciated. 

 

He squinted at the screen, the light bright and hazy in the pitch black room. It hurt his eyes a bit and was undoubtedly glinting off the glasses balanced on the tip of his nose. This, of course, didn’t change the ‘Vitya ❤❤’ displayed proudly on the iPhone screen. Yuuri stared at the picture of his husband, heart-shaped smile wide and eyes shining happily. He did miss that smile. As he stared, his brow neatly furrowing and his lips slowly turning down into a frustrated frown, he missed the look Otabek and Phichit shared.

 

He did not miss Beka answering the call. The noise that came out of him then could best be described as a squeak. Then, he wasn’t even offered the damn phone.

 

Otabek was frowning as he listened to Viktor speak. “Yuuri is busy right now,” he replied, or maybe interrupted, lowering his voice just so until it was mildly intimidating and borderline husky. He paused, and the frown only deepened. “Hm?” He continued, glaring at Yuuri when he started to fidget, “Oh, his nails are wet. He can’t use his hands yet.”

 

Yuuri was torn between wincing and grinning as he remembered the time he had gotten a professional manicure without telling Viktor. He had come home, eager to show his husband how pretty his nails were long and painted with a glossy blue, only for the Russian man to be pouty and passive aggressive. He hadn’t even let Yuuri kiss him, aside from when he walked in the door. Hours later, he finally dragged out the reason. 

 

(“Someone else held your hand, Yuuri!” Viktor cried out, lip wobbling as his eyes filled with tears, “That’s my job, and you let a stranger do it without a second thought!”)

 

Afterwards, he promised he wouldn’t get another manicure. Did this count as breaking that promise? What counted as a manicure? Were there  _ guidelines? _

 

The singer was pulled out of his thoughts by Otabek talking to him. “Yuuri,” Otabek said, tone impatient in that gentle way that came with repeating himself. He kept glancing down at Yuuri’s not-quite-still-enough fingers, “Are you okay with me telling Viktor where we are? He wants to come over.” 

 

Yuuri swallowed dryly, and he thought of crying in the studio. Thought of how he’d bared his flaws to the world, and Viktor’s insecurities, and the fragility of his paper heart. But most of all, he thought about the ring on his finger, and he nodded. The next few minutes were a little blurry, with the anxiety welling up at what Viktor would even say. They hadn’t seen each other in months- because of Yuuri’s decision. Now, though, he remembered what it was like to be Yuuri; not Viktor’s Yuuri, not _ ViktorandYuuri  _ but Yuuri Kastuki. 

 

He reluctantly hugged them goodbye, running his fingers over the valleys in Otabek’s forehead until they smoothed out and he stepped out the door. Phichit grinned impishly as he teased about, “not wanting to be there when they had their naked reunion,’ and jumped out of the way of Yuuri’s pinching fingers. He had shut the door behind him with a laugh and then turned around to face a blank wall. The house was empty. Yuuri was alone. He drifted back into the living room, to wait. He couldn’t help but wonder what Viktor wanted. Was he angry? Sad? Maybe he wanted a divorce. Shivering at the thought, he slowly twisted the ring on his finger. In the silence of the house, he could hear the click of Vicchan’s claws on the cold floor mixing with the quiet melody of his heartbeat. Makka was sleeping, curled up neatly on the plush armchair. Yuuri stared at her for a minute, before covering her up with a blanket that probably cost more than all of his mother’s clothing. He continued like that- cleaning up, busying his hands now that Otabek couldn’t warn him about smearing them. The nervous energy bubbled in him like water on the stove; rising, rising, rising, louder and louder as it got dangerously close to overflowing.

 

The doorbell rang. Yuuri could hear the phantom scorch of the water boiling over. The metal handle was cold in his hands as he opened the door to welcome Viktor in, staring at his shoes because he didn’t want to see the look on his face. But then, there was a hand on his chin and lips pressed against his. There was a wetness on his cheeks, but he didn’t quite remember crying. There was Viktor, holding onto him like if he let go Yuuri would only float away. 

 

Yuuri smiled, listening to the crescendo of two harmonizing heartbeats, and surged forward to kiss his husband.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading this!! if you wanna talk you can find me on tumblr at 'aspidocheloner'. i promise i'm not mean, just really nervous all the time.


End file.
